Report: Marin chokes on anti-smoking measures

Measures taken by Marin's cities and county government to curtail cigarette smoke have improved slightly but continue to fall short, according to a new report card from the American Lung Association.

The annual study gave five Marin cities failing grades, while four got D's, two received C's and Novato, which passed sweeping tobacco control legislation in 2008, garnered a B, one of only 11 jurisdictions statewide to do so. The marks were a slim improvement over the association's 2008 report, in which seven of Marin's cities received failing grades.

The report card based its grades on three categories: laws to encourage smoke-free air outside places like restaurants, movie theaters, and ATMs; regulations on smoking in multi-unit housing; and reduction in sales of tobacco products, particularly to minors, through the creation of local licensing of tobacco sales.

Bob Curry, coordinator of the county's Tobacco Related Disease Control Program, said local governments' current preoccupation with budget shortfalls constitutes the biggest obstacle to improving tobacco control measures.

"We know we already have their support," he said of local governments. "But we just can't get on their agendas right now because of the budget issues, which we understand. We're here and ready to proceed as soon as they can put us on their agenda. We hope there will be some breathing room where we can proceed."

That sums up the predicament for San Rafael, according to Assistant City Manager Nancy Mackle. The city is in the midst of painful budget negotiations to reduce a multi-million-dollar deficit.

"The timing is a little tough," she said. "We like being at the forefront of these things, especially for the health of the community. But we just don't really have the mechanisms right now to deal with this. Hopefully we will in the future."

Larkspur Mayor Joan Lundstrom said the report was helpful to bring the issue to the council's attention.

"It's not necessarily that we have willfully ignored it," she said. "It's simply because there are many other things on our plate, including the state taking money away from us and our search for a new city manager. But we do plan to put this on our agenda."

Novato Mayor Jeanne MacLeamy said she was pleased with the city's rating. In April 2008, the City Council declared second-hand smoke a "public nuisance" and banned smoking outside a range of public and private buildings, including within 20 feet of restaurants. Curry called the ordinance a blueprint for other cities that want to improve their grade.

MacLeamy dissented in that 2008 vote, saying she was concerned about the possibility of frivolous lawsuits incited by the ban on smoking in multi-unit apartment buildings unless the landlord designated an outdoor smoking area. MacLeamy said she was comfortable with where the city's laws are now, and wasn't sure making the jump from a B to an A in the association's grading system was vital.

"There are so many restrictions that are imposed by government already," she said. "Unless I can see that there are other ways where we can really substantially help the public health, I wouldn't be inclined to impose more restrictions. People are up to the eyeballs in those."

Fairfax Mayor Lew Tremaine, a smoker, took MacLeamy's thoughts a step further. He said he expected the issue to surface at a council meeting in the next several weeks, but called the study's D grade for his town "a harsh assessment."

Tremaine said he opposed legislating people's ability to smoke in their own homes, even if they live in a multi-unit building, where smoke can seep into the homes of their neighbors. He said that smokers needed to be considerate of their neighbors and that it was incumbent upon apartment building owners to make sure that cigarette smoke didn't seep from one unit to another.

"Telling people what they can do in their own homes when it's a legal activity is an awful stretch," he said. "We already came to the conclusion that that was overstepping. I think we've gone as far as we're comfortable with on our smoking ordinance. The American Lung Association should be putting a lot more emphasis on what's coming out of our tail pipes. That's a far greater health hazard to the residents of my city than people smoking in outdoor areas."